Susquenita baseball finishes 9-11, just shy of districts

Bryon Wilson looks back at the recently completed Susquenita baseball season and wonders what could have been.

The Blackhawk coach has ample reasons.

Wilson’s ballclub opened with four straight losses, beat Greenwood in the first round of the PECO tournament, got shelled by West Perry 12-1 in the title game then lost a 4-3 decision to East Pennsboro that put its record at 1-6.

The Blackhawks sandwiched four-game winning streaks around a three-loss run and evened their record at 9-9, on the cusp of earning a spot in the District 3-AA playoffs, with just two games to play.

What followed was Susquenita’s season in a nutshell.

The Blackhawks failed to hold on to 3-1 and 5-3 leads and lost 8-5 to Trinity then, undermanned, couldn’t hold off Milton Hershey, dropping a 3-1 decision in a game halted by a storm after five innings.

The Blackhawks finished 9-11 and 12th in the D-3 power rankings, four spots from qualifying for the postseason. Seven of those losses were by three runs, or fewer, including two that went extra innings.

“The fact that we were 9-11 was disappointing, but if we beat Milton Hershey, we’re 10-10 and we’re in the playoffs,” said Wilson, now 81-81 after eight years in Cove. “If we get into the playoffs, we send out Brett Morrison (to pitch) and who knows what happens. It could have been a whole different world.”

Morrison, a junior in his third year with the Blackhawk varsity, had the breakout year that has long been expected.

The sturdy right-hander emerged as the staff ace. He posted a 3.11 earned run average with 46 strikeouts over 45 innings, compiling a 3-4 record that wasn’t reflective of how well he pitched. He suffered all of his losses in the first five games. In those losses, the Blackhawk defense helped allow 10 unearned runs. Down the stretch, Morrison limited Milton Hershey to one hit over five innings to pick up an 11-1 win, left the Big Spring game tied at 3-3 after seven and had West Perry on the ropes at Metro Bank Park before surrendering three game-tying runs in the fifth inning of a game the Mustangs would win 4-3. He then shut out East Penn on three hits in a return engagement at Metro Bank.

Morrison also turned in his best season with the bat. He led the team with 20 hits, including four doubles, scored 11 runs and knocked in 11, batting a career, and team-best, .345. Morrison was selected to the MPC-Capital first-team all-stars.

“Brett had a great year,” Wilson said. “He played well, but he also stepped into a leadership role this year.”

Morrison was the bell cow for a staff that was short on experience, but long on talent and grit.

Juniors John Daum and Jake Nace gradually worked their way into the starting rotation and proved they belonged.

Daum, who finished with a 3-2 record, shut out Trinity on three hits, striking out five without walking a batter. He later beat Northern and Halifax, the Tri-Valley league champs, who were held to six hits and one run over seven innings. Daum posted a 2.47 ERA with 23 strikeouts, 32 hits and just eight walks over 33.1 innings.

Nace, who matched Daum’s 3-2 record, beat Steel-High (twice) and Greenwood. He also pitched effectively in the win over Upper Dauphin. Nace compiled a staff-best 2.28 ERA with a 1.16 WHIP over 27.2 innings and posted a fine 23-10 strikeouts-to-walk ratio.

“Our pitching was solid,” Wilson said, pointing to an overall 3.15 ERA that was nearly a run better than the previous year. “I was pleasantly surprised how well the kids threw, how well it held together in some difficult situations.”

The Blackhawk defense, solid most of the time, had a nasty habit of faltering in tight games. It gave up, on average, a run per game.

“What hurt us was, we’d be going along great and ... bang, we’d make a couple of errors or miss a play we needed to make,” Wilson explained. “If you look, most of our one-run losses were lost in the sixth or seventh inning.”

The Blackhawks might have overcome their deficiencies with a more consistent offense. They hit .253, down a tick from the previous year and averaged 5.3 runs, which, while an improvement, was inflated by the 46 runs scored in four games, wins over Greenwood, Milton Hershey and Steel-High (two).

First-year varsity player Evan Miller had an outstanding season. Batting leadoff, the junior left fielder hit .302, walked 12 times and scored a team-best 15 runs.